Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh KhanVarinder Chawla

Shah Rukh Khan's much hyped upcoming film "Raees" has been in the news recently, after being postponed multiple times. Since the project has been in the pipeline for quite some time now, speculations regarding its delay has been making the rounds.

Director Rahul Dholakia, however, denied such reports. Clearing the air surrounding the film's status, Dholakia took to Twitter, where he stated that "Raees" is still in pre-production stage and is yet to go on floors but the buzz about the delay is baseless.

The film, which also stars Farhan Akhtar, was initially supposed to go on floors from 1 November this year. Producer Ritesh Sidhwani even took to Twitter to announce that the shoot would commence in November. But later, the news of the film being postponed surfaced.

If rumours are to be believed, co-producer and actor Akhtar was not very satisfied with the second half of the project, and so the makers are now under the process of making the necessary changes, which eventually resulted in the film's delay, reported India Today.

This is for the first time that Khan and Akhtar will be seen sharing screen space. The duo had worked together in "Don" (2006) and its sequel "Don 2" (2011), which Akhtar directed, while SRK played the lead.

Another suspected reason for the delay is that the film makers are yet to decide on the shoot locations.

Also, though the male leads have been finalised, the lead actress of "Raees" is yet to be announced.

Initially, Katrina Kaif and Sonam Kapoor were associated with the lead actress role. But both actresses reportedly turned down the offer.

"Raees" is set in Gujarat, and Khan will play the role of a Gujarati bootlegger. The film is set to release in the last quarter of 2015.

Currently, Khan is busy promoting his most awaited film "Happy New Year". The movie, directed by Farah Khan, also has Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani as main characters. "Happy New Year" is slated to release worldwide on 23 October.